Habits
by Feilyn
Summary: Habit: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. An excerpt from the lives of Ichigo and Rukia. Whether they are friends or more, some things just can't be helped.


_First Ichi/Ruki. Something that just popped into my head. For all those people who read Lost And Found, this is in no way related, 'kay? It's like…taking-a-break writing. For fun._

_My god, writing for fun. What a novel concept. Lol._

_Here ya are, then._

xXx

He tries ignoring it at first.

Well, not really, because someone like Rukia is impossible to ignore, especially when she's shoving a juice-box in his face. But he does his best to pretend to ignore her, and figures that's good enough.

Except that it isn't, because still the juice box is being shoved in his face and he _knows_ she's just doing it to be annoying because he has already shown her how to open the damn thing hundreds of times before.

Alright, not hundreds, but it sure as hell feels like it.

He glances over at her, silently sitting there as she thrusts the damn thing at him and nibbles on the chocolate bar he'd thrown at her an hour ago. He's given her chocolate before, of course, but she seems particularly enamoured with this particular bar – she'd opened it delightedly as soon as she'd caught it, and it's still only half eaten.

Who the fuck takes an hour to gnaw through half a chocolate bar anyway?

The ignoring (or pretend-ignoring) isn't working though and to be honest after an hour of silence he's kind of missing her annoying voice.

Still she pushes the juice box insistently at him, wide eyes perfectly serious.

"Oi, Rukia…" he says slowly. "I ain't going to open the damn juice for you, alright? You can do it yourself."

This time, instead of just waving it under his nose, she nudges his shoulder with it.

"Lazy bitch," he growls. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

He's not really doing anything but watch her eat her chocolate, but hell, that's busy enough for him.

She leaves the chocolate dangling from her small mouth and thwaps him over head with her free hand. Before she can shove the juice box at him again, however, he grabs it off her and, grumbling under his breath, pulls the plastic against the straw and rips it open before poking it through the designated hole at the top of the juice box

"There," he says gruffly, holding it out to her.

She beams her thousand-watt classroom smile at him, except this time he can see the sincerity in it as she happily swaps her chocolate for the juice. He watches her suck away at it for a little while as she flips through the pages of the magazine she'd begged him for that morning when they helped Yuzu with the shopping and admits that maybe she's not _too_ annoying after all. For a start, her begging has shifted from throwing things and insulting him to that devastating pout. Normally that would piss the hell out of him, but he finds he doesn't mind so much. Heaven forbid, he actually thinks it's kind of cute.

That damned slurping noise she's making right now though? The one where she's trying to get every last drop of juice out of the box? Yeah, not so cute.

"Rukia, would you shut the hell up? I'm trying to think."

Instead of the glare he's expecting, she shoots him a grin that so obviously says 'You? Thinking?' that she doesn't even have to speak the words as she throws the totally empty juice box at him.

"Get me another," she demands.

He stares at her, incredulous. "Get it yourself."

This time the look isn't nearly so cheerful. "I don't know where they are, dumbass."

"_I'm_ a dumbass? The juice was cold, wasn't it, and there's only one fridge in the house. Plus, who's the idiot who can't open the juice box?" And he rambles on, listing all the things that make her stupid even as he lumbers to his feet and shuffles out of the room to get her damned juice box.

She's smiling around her chocolate when he gets back but he pretends he can't see it as he chucks the juice at her, fully expecting her to throw it back and demand he open it.

Instead, humming happily, she catches the box in one hand and while she's still munching on the chocolate uses that same hand to push the straw through the plastic and into the box.

He stares.

"Well what the hell do you need me for?"

She turns her big eyes up to him, sparkling innocently as she pulls the chocolate from her mouth. "Fetching and carrying, of course." She winks and takes a sip from the juice box. "You're damn annoying, you know that?"

"You're the one letting me sleep in your house."

"Did I have a choice?"

"You took me home with you in the first place," she points out from behind the straw.

He blusters. "Yeah, well, I sure as hell wasn't going let you stay anywhere else. Y'know, considering what happened last time I let you out of my sight."

She shrugs, flipping a page in her magazine and he is promptly forgotten in the face of summer fashion.

Rolling his eyes, he flops back down onto his bed and settles in for the long haul.

See, that wasn't the _only_ magazine she'd begged him for.

xXx

Rukia smirks inwardly as she finishes the first magazine and throws it next to the pile of ones to be started. She can feel Ichigo's eyes trained on her, probably without him even realising it.

Of course, she'd been lying when she told him why she keeps him around. The fetching and carrying is a bonus. It's more the fact that he _wants _to do it than anything else.

xXx


End file.
